Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The present disclosure relates to a color adjustment apparatus, a color adjustment method, and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing therein a color adjustment program, each of which reproduces a desired color tone. In particular, the present disclosure relates to reproducing, in a desired image forming apparatus, a color tone in another image forming apparatus.
Generally, manufacturers recommended specific paper to use when printing to image forming apparatuses such as printers. As long as the recommended paper is used, an given image quality such as a color tone is ensured. However, in many cases, paper that has not been recommended is used when printing, and thus printing with a given color tone cannot be ensured.
Therefore, various types of techniques have been proposed, each of which is used for enhancing the reproducibility of a color tone by, for example, making a correction based on a printing environment such as a difference in paper. In addition, corrections are made involving, for example, linear conversion, gamma correction, and the amount of heat or time taken for melting toner.
However, even if such corrections and the like are made, it may be difficult to faithfully reproduce a color tone ensured by a manufacturer. In addition, since making such a correction requires highly technological knowledge, it may be difficult to achieve an ideal color tone.
In addition, there is a need for continuity of color tones across multiple image forming apparatuses. For example, when a printer is replaced with a new product, there is a need to reproduce, in the new printer, the color tones of the previously used printer.
A method such as that illustrated in FIG. 11 exists as a measure for responding to such needs. Printing is performed on both a current printer 2 and a new printer 1 using the same input data and the same recommended paper P1. The individual color values are measured and an association between the measured values is applied to the new printer 1. Accordingly, it may be possible to reproduce the color tones of the current printer 2 on the new printer 1.
Since a manufacturer possesses the color values of the printer 1 when printing with the recommended paper P1, the above-mentioned measure may be relatively easily performed.
In some instances, however, other paper is used in place of the recommended paper P1. In this case, the paper used for comparison between color values is desired to be the same. Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 12, it is desired that comparison between color values printed by printers 1 and 2 be performed using either the recommended paper P1 (in an upper stage) or other paper P2 (in a lower stage).
However, for example, when a user is in a remote location (such as overseas), when it is difficult to obtain the recommended paper, or when it is difficult for the manufacturer to easily prepare the printer 2, it is difficult to acquire the color values of the printer 2 using the recommended paper P1. In such a case, it may be difficult to perform the comparison illustrated in the upper stage of FIG. 12.
Further, the printer 1 includes a color conversion table used for reproducing color tones on the premise of the usage of the recommended paper P1. Therefore, it may be difficult to directly apply, to the color conversion table, the result of the color comparison obtained using the method in the lower stage in FIG. 12.
Therefore, if paper other than the recommended paper has been used when printing to the printer 2, it will be difficult to reproduce the color tones of the printer 2 with the printer 1.
The present disclosure relates to a color adjustment apparatus, a color adjustment method, and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing therein a color adjustment program, each of which enables reproduction, in a desired image forming apparatus, of the color tone thereof by predicting with a high degree of accuracy a color value of another image forming apparatus when using recommended paper, regardless of whether or not the image forming apparatuses or paper types are identical.